Even though our current
grid is 99.97% reliable, power disturbances still cause major
problems for the U.S. industry.1 Specifically,
the US economy loses more than $150 billion dollars every
year due to power outages - that's approximately $500 for
every man, woman and child, according to the DOE.2
In some cases, utilities don’t know there is an outage until
a customer calls in to report it. Even then, some power companies
need to visit the scene before knowing exactly which parts
of the grid are damaged.

When power
disturbances are not handled quickly, there is risk
of cascading failure. When a power line goes down, the
electricity that once flowed down the damaged line is
forced down other paths. If those other lines are already
close to full capacity, the onslaught of electricity
will cause them to overload as a result of congestion,
creating a domino effect that is the leading cause of
massive blackouts.3

America has suffered substantial
power failures five times in the past 40 years—three
of which occurred in the past nine years.4
Increased demand for energy combined with lack of real-time
information on the grid has led to this increase in
outages.

Opportunities

With
the implementation of smart grid automation
technologies, utilities will have more real-time knowledge about
the grid and its performance. Smart grid technologies deliver knowledge
that helps identify potential problems in the distribution system,
so utilities will be able to react to potential problems more easily—before
customers are ever affected. If an outage does occur, it can be
automatically detected, with electricity rerouted safely to minimize
impact.

Smart grid automation technologies can also work in conjunction
with smart meters and advanced
metering infrastructure to provide real-time knowledge of the grid’s
status, identifying and alerting the utility to exactly which homes
and businesses are out of service—before a customer ever has to
call.